Smooth / darken an image

Good evening,

Photofiltre does not handle this directly; you need to disable transparency:

Image > Transparency Color > "unchecked" disable

For creating montages in drawing/painting, you should try Paint.Net (free and in French).

A tutorial with Paint.Net (free and in French):

http://vernois57.free.fr/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=658

In black and white, there shouldn't be too much of a problem, BUT, well, there is always a BUT lurking around, I don't know if you've noticed: once in GIF transparency you no longer have any commands available so you can't go into the Filter menu and use the smooth command. What you call the "stair-step" effect is aliasing, with free PhotoFiltre there is no anti-aliasing and this flaw is more pronounced the more your magic wand, your automatic transparency function (Transparency color) is poorly adjusted: the higher your tolerance is, the more significant the phenomenon is. With well-adjusted tools, aliasing is no more pronounced than in other software; all software has it. You can also go to the Selection menu --> Smoothing and check Smooth Contour, with a good adjustment of your wand it should be fine, no aliasing for example here: http://ioj.com/v/6nq5c or there http://ioj.com/v/bpwpc, and it's done with free PhotoFiltre...

Luke.

--
The price of software is inversely proportional to its ergonomics...

Hello,

Paint.NET handles 24/32-bit PNG, and the commands are accessible whether you open a JPG, GIF, or PNG file.

Open the scanned image (JPG), then go to Adjustments > Brightness / Contrast: set brightness to -2 and contrast to +2.

Click on the wand tool and set Fill Mode = Global, Tolerance around 25, then click on a "white" area (zoom in to 100 to 300% to see the result) (be careful, tolerance is very sensitive at +/- 1).

To apply transparency: hit Delete, then go to Effects > Object > Feather: set adjustments to 1 and check True Feather. (optionally set Effect Strength to 2)

Save as: in 32-bit PNG.

Good evening DoubleP65,

You can easily increase the thickness of the line with: Outline Object in Paint.Net.

http://vernois57.free.fr/pages/art_Paint_NET/Paint_Net_trait_double.jpg

Several tools in Paint.Net have (optionally) antialiasing, and the Feather plugin allows you to reduce the aliasing effect.

Paint.Net allows for transparency in a selection area, regardless of the colors, which is the advantage of a multiple selection wand.

Thank you very much for this quick response, I'll try that tomorrow!
Another question, is it possible to increase the thickness of the lines in my image, so that thin lines are "thickened"?
Thanks again and have a good evening!

What you need is some good "8bf" plugins, but the free version of PhotoFiltre doesn't support them!

Otherwise, try IrfanView:

https://www.commentcamarche.net/telecharger/photo-graphisme/12703-irfanview/

Install the plugin pack to have the "8bf" files here in plugins:

https://www.irfanview.com/

My favorite 8bf effects here:

The first one on free download:

https://www.bestsevenreviews.com/7-best-free-photo-editing-software/

Here: "ps: these have become free" :)

http://www.redpawmedia.com/

Or here (various)

https://forum.hardware.fr/hfr/Photonumerique/Logiciels-Retouche/plugins-8bf-logiciels-sujet_13158_1.htm

Hoping this can help!!!!! :)

Ps: although as add57 said Paint.Net is a good one and I am 99.8% sure that it supports "8bf"!

Okay, I tried to disable the transparency in PhotoFiltre, but the smoothing still didn't work...

After installing Paint.NET and using "Reduce Noise" in the Effects menu, I got something better in terms of smoothing, even though I was hoping for a better result (the jagged effect is still visible, less so, but present...) but that will do ^^

I don't quite understand the point of 8bf... I don't know much about it and my Google searches haven't clarified much, but if I understood correctly, it's plugins for image editing software... I don't really see the point, especially since you haven't given any specific 8bf for what I'm trying to do...??? If you know of one that fits what I'm looking for, that would be welcome :D

Thanks a lot add57, any suggestions for thickening my lines? ^^

Hello,

I reduced the background to transparent with the magic wand tool in PhotoFiltre (free, not studio...)

Free PhotoFiltre = GIF transparency = 256 color GIF for the entire image and the degradation that comes with it. We can’t do anything more, work has to start again either without transparency or with another software that manages and keeps PNG transparency... :-(((

Luke.

--
The price of software is inversely proportional to its ergonomics...
(Takuan Soho 1573 - 1645 ...)

No problem (at least I think...?), it's a black and white image...
Thank you!

aaaaaah...
indeed, when you think about it, it seems logical! Indeed, I was using the magic wand with a very high tolerance, and selecting black on a white background wouldn't change anything...
I'll try that, thank you!

however, even with transparency unchecked, the smoothing menu is still grayed out... no "feather" option...

Boarf, having an image in .gif doesn't bother me much, but if you had an idea to "thicken" my markers...? (I repeat myself but oh well....)

Hello DoubleP65,

I don’t use Photofiltre, but I can provide a solution using GIMP. There may be an equivalent...
- use the magic wand to select the path
- from the selection, generate a path
- disable the selection
- trace the path with the desired thickness

Example:
http://www.cijoint.fr/cjlink.php?file=cj201003/cijDzrZ6Ss.jpg

Hello Armojax,

No, there is no equivalent function in PhotoFiltre, but there might be another solution...

Hello DoubleP65

Since it’s in B&W, try going through Adjustments --> Dark Tone Enhancement and do it X times in a row, then with a good zoom, click on the line with the magic wand and then go to Edit --> Contour and Fill and set the contour to the desired value (here 5 px) http://ioj.com/v/3n4tf , then you create your GIF transparency with the magic wand set very low and by going through Image --> Automatic Transparency --> Inside the selection, which would give you this: http://ioj.com/v/7i50u You can also do it by clicking on the Transparency Color button in the toolbar at the top and then setting the tolerance very low, with this method only the most important color on the surface becomes transparent (here white), but you might not actually need transparency, because even with a tolerance of 1 it doesn’t improve the edges or you might end up with a white border along your line...
I don’t see much other solution.... :-(((

Luke.

--
The price of software is inversely proportional to its ergonomics...
(Takuan Soho 1573 - 1645 ...)

Thank you all, all my problems are solved!!!

Before closing this topic, I’m posting what helped me a lot in your comments to assist the next person that Google sends here:

- Making the background of an image transparent: with Photofiltre, use the magic wand to select the colors to make transparent (check the color so that all pixels of a color in the image are selected, and not just those that "touch") then image > automatic transparency > inner region (be careful of quality loss in .gif for a color image, I refer to Luke1's comment)

- To avoid the "jagged" effect, set the magic wand to a low tolerance, then select and make transparent, and since not all pixels will be selected at once, you will need to repeat this operation several times... You can also slightly reduce this "jagged" effect with paint.net and its "noise reduction"

- To thicken a line: with Gimp, select the line to thicken, then click the "auto" button in the window on the right, then click on the "paths" tab (chemins in French), with the menu of this tab (small arrow to the left) do path menu > selection to path, then deselect your line (ctrl+a), then right-click on your new "path" > stroke path and finally in the new window set the thickness of the outline and then click "stroke".
your computer buzzes and it's done!!! (thank you Armojax for your help ^^)

Thanks again to everyone who helped me ^^

oh yeah, thanks, because these tests made me install 3 different software, I didn't remember the order to use them ^^, thank you!